by Stephen Lunn

Created on: June 18, 2009

After the unprecedented and surprisingly devastating season for one region in the '08/'09 season, it's hard not to consider the fact that maybe a trend is being set. The north-east, a real footballing bastion in English football, suffered what has to be its worst season in recent memory, at the very least since the beginning of the Barclay's Premier League in 1992. Middlesbrough FC, who had played in the top flight for 10 years, and Newcastle United, a team with a 50,000+ seater stadium, somehow couldn't escape relegation while their respective north-east rivals, Hull City and Sunderland FC finished just safe in 17th and 16th on a dramatic last day of the season which could have seen any of the four teams filling the two vacant relegation spaces left above West Brom who, despite valiant attempts, were already staring a tough season in the less lucrative Championship in the face.

As a region, though, the south coast has only one club to defend its pride in the coming season. Portsmouth FC, with its high-profile signing of Peter Crouch and entertaining style of play should have done better, but was blighted with managerial problems and a lack of leadership, so only managed to finish 14th. This, however, shouldn't concern the fans, as, even though the critics might argue 14th is far from healthy for a team with such quality but also such bad luck (somehow letting a 2-0 lead slip to 3-2 defeat when playing Liverpool at home, and an impressive 2-0 lead against AC Milan slip to a draw), with new Arab ownership and the prospects of secure management this might bring it's hard to see how, as long as they hang on to most of their better players, they would struggle in a relegation battle.

Some will argue that despite the quality of play it took Portsmouth to the last 3 weeks of the season to be safe from relegation. But this season was unbelievably close in the middle of the table, from beginning to end, and it took until the last month for a gap of what became less than 15 points to open up between 11th and 20th place. Instead of the eyes of football fans being at either end of the table, a third dimension was added to the League this year and the race to be in the top-half and to be in contention for the Europa League (finishing in 7th place) were as fascinating.

Plymouth Argyle FC, another south-coast team, however, finished 21st in the Championship last season, and look like slipping unless a turnaround is achieved. They are currently the largest English city

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